12°c Light drizzle
17°c Mainly cloudy
The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
Snake bitten B.C. man says if not for health care at home he would be dead
VANCOUVER - Michael Lovatt never saw his slithering assailant.
In fact, the 61-year-old British Columbia man who nearly died from a poisonous bite, didn't spot a single snake the entire month he was visiting Costa Rica.
So when he felt pain shoot through his foot two days before his vacation's end, Lovatt blamed an army of red fire ants.
But the man from Robert's Creek, on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, is now recollecting the rattling ordeal thanks to a team of sharp doctors who hustled to retrieve the antidote from a Seattle zoo and saved his life.
"If they hadn't got that anti-venom to me, my kids would have been coming to a funeral to see their dad," Lovatt said Friday during a teleconference with reporters.
"It was real scary."
Lovatt was in the Central American country for pleasure, interested in experiencing a tropical rainforest complete with howler monkeys and gigantic vegetation.
"I never saw a snake the whole time," he said.
About 8 p.m. near the end of his trip, he was walking down a gravel road with a bright flashlight when he was confronted with a three-metre carpet of red ants.
It was too wide to leap over, so he began picking his way through.
Suddenly, he felt an intense pain.
"When I put my flashlight back on my foot, I saw three red blood dots. Ow, it really hurt."
His foot was already swollen as he returned to his cottage. Very soon he was vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. Within an hour, he couldn't put weight on it.
It was a sleepless night.
On March 18, Lovatt and a friend returned the car they had rented and two people lifted him into a local hospital.
By then, his leg was swollen up to his calf.
Doctors took X-rays and gave him antibiotics and pain medicine. He was wheelchair bound but caught his flight.
At a stop-over in Houston he took a bathroom break and realized something was still very wrong.
He rushed to Vancouver General Hospital immediately on arriving back in B.C., about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
"I was (still) clearly thinking. I knew this was creeping up my leg," he said. "By the time I got to Vancouver this was halfway up my thigh. I just thought, this was the right thing to do. My lips were bleeding."
That's where the medical team diagnosed the problem — a potentially-fatal attack by the bothrops snake, a venomous creature originating in Central and South America.
"I didn't learn it was a snake until I got back in Vancouver and the team ... looked at the pattern of marks on my feet," he said.
"I had no idea. It took me really by surprise."
Dr. Roy Purssell, the director of the B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre, said on Thursday he and the doctors identified the culprit based on all of the symptoms Lovatt suffered. That included damage to his kidneys, which required dialysis, and major problems with blood clotting.
They located the stock of antidote at a Woodland Zoo in Seattle, Wash., rushing an air ambulance to pick it up.
"This was presented to me as a very serious condition. It was sliding in the wrong way really fast," Lovatt said.
"When they got that first venom into me, it turned around real fast."
The man received about 40 units of blood and blood byproducts through the first night, and soon was in the clear.
"They worked real hard, they were an excellent team."
Note to readers: CORRECTS to Central American country.
More Your Health
- Back to Top
- Return to Your Health
More Your Health
(1 of 5 articles for today)
Health Highlights: May 25, 2013
9:00 AM 0Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
'Nanoparticle' Flu Vaccine ...
Poll
Most Popular Your Health
- PC white grape juice recalled nationally over undeclared sulphites
- Toxic drug that was abandoned in development offered for sale online to athletes
- CT-scans: weigh negative and positive effects
- Baker's cyst A sign of something else
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- Vet to deliver birth control for stray dogs in Labrador Innu communities
- Adrenal fatigue can have significant impact
- Habit reforming
- H7N9 virus closer to being human transmissible than other bird flu viruses
- Canada lifts lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, but some restrictions remain
- Smoke sales forbidden at pharmacies, health facilities starting May 31
- Canada lifts lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, but some restrictions remain
- Skin picking gets status as distinct disorder, should help sufferers access help
- Over one million affected by boil-water advisory in Montreal
- New Brunswick discouraging new family doctors from practising: medical residents
- Measles outbreaks flourish in UK years after discredited research tied measles shot to autism
- Baker's cyst A sign of something else
- Three companies recall antipsychotic drug quetiapine: Health Canada says
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- CT-scans: weigh negative and positive effects
- Baby delivery: safe haven baby drop-off sites open in Edmonton hospitals
- Boston Marathon bombing victims face huge medical bills; tens of millions in donations pour in
- Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy: Q&A
- Smoke sales forbidden at pharmacies, health facilities starting May 31
- Pharmacy assistant who found diluted cancer drugs says label raised questions
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- Auditor general takes aim at residential schools, diabetes prevention
- Baker's cyst A sign of something else
- Hockey commentator Kelly Hrudey shares daughter's struggle with mental illness
- Biomedical engineer designs exercises, tests to battle Alzheimer's
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- Adrenal fatigue can have significant impact
- CT-scans: weigh negative and positive effects
- Canada lifts lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, but some restrictions remain
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- Skin picking gets status as distinct disorder, should help sufferers access help
- Adrenal fatigue can have significant impact
- CT-scans: weigh negative and positive effects
- Canadian dies with aid of doctor in Zurich; wished it could have been in Canada
- Avoid herpes -- make love like a porcupine
- Three companies recall antipsychotic drug quetiapine: Health Canada says
- Measles outbreaks flourish in UK years after discredited research tied measles shot to autism
- Avoid allergen triggers to keep guests safe when barbecuing this summer
- Vitamin C and lysine proven to keep arteries healthy
- Biomedical engineer designs exercises, tests to battle Alzheimer's
- Adrenal fatigue can have significant impact
- Kidney problems price we pay for progress
- Natural medicine best for lowering cholesterol
- Canada lifts lifetime ban on gay men giving blood, but some restrictions remain
- Hockey commentator Kelly Hrudey shares daughter's struggle with mental illness
- Skin picking gets status as distinct disorder, should help sufferers access help
- Knee repair? Study finds physical therapy as good as surgery for torn cartilage, arthritis
- Canadian dies with aid of doctor in Zurich; wished it could have been in Canada
Ads by Google
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.
Have Your Say
New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.
The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.